Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,729,656, the disclosure which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses a system and method of forming a debit card having a personal identification number (PIN) radiation cured, opaque scratch-off coating applied over the PIN. A card supply feeds cards that are advanced along a predetermined path of travel on a conveyor into various print stations where the personal identification number (PIN) is printed onto the surface of the card, such as by inkjet printing, followed by advancement into successive print stations for further processing. A first print station prints a release coating over the PIN. A second print station prints a scratch-off coating. A third print station applies a second or subsequent ink layer or other coating over the opaque scratch-off coating.
The print stations include an Anilox metering roll and a plate cylinder having impression plates as print pads as commonly used in flexographic printing stations that print a “stripe,” i.e., a strip of material such as an ink, for example, in the form of a release coating or scratch-off coating, of predetermined thickness and predetermined length as defined by the type of plate cylinder and impression plate on the print pad. This particular “stripe” or strip of release coating or scratch-off coating is of a predetermined length, width, and position on the card resulting from the configuration of the print cylinder and its print pad positioned on the print cylinder's periphery and timing relationship relative to the advancing card. In this type of system, however, there is no variation in the length or number of stripes that can be printed on the card. There are many applications, however, where a vendor desires to vary the number and length of the stripes depending on individual cards or end use customer requirements.